Laying Off Rows and Potato Planting with a Cub

Mon May 12, 2008 12:49 pm

Rudi asked me to write up a guide, so here goes; My Cub wears it's work clothes because it still works for a living.

I used to raise potatoes for sale. The first 2 years I planted by hand using the Cub to lay off and cover the sets. Later, I bought a transplanter with a potato and bulb attachment. If I was planting having fertilized the whole field, I would use a home-made bar to mount the point on the rear cultivator frames, and disk hiller or covering shovels on the front frame. The rows were laid off, the seed pieces dropped, then covered with the front shovels or disks. Covering with the front cultivators allows precise control of the amount of soil covering the seed. If you have a crew dropping seed, this can go quite fast. I have planted 3 acres in a day with 2 hired hands. The slow part is cutting the sets and treating them with sulfer. The bar is made from 33 inches of 13/8" square tubing welded to 2 6" pieces of 1" pipe. I thought pipe might be too light, but it hasn't bent yet. Regular cultivator clamps hold the bar and the shovel.The rest of the tools are common. The covering shovels work better in sandy soil , while the disk hillers cover deeply. I use planter runner brackets to hold covering shovels or disk hillers . This makes it easier to switch tools than the full 144 frames. If I wanted to lay fertilizer in the row I mount the lay-off point on a planter frame with the 53a hopper attachment. I drag a short lenght of heavy chain behind the point to mix the fertilizer with the soil. This keeps it from burning the seed. I use the cub to lay off rows for smaller seeds too. Planting deep in a furrow places the seed closer to moisture. As you cultivate, soil is brought in next to the plants smothering small weeds between plants. This helps reduce hoeing. I hope this helps.Best,Mike